INQUIZ Labs brings practical AI skills to Jamaica

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving rapidly from the margins of technology to the centre of how people work, build businesses and compete. Yet as technology advances, many people are still asking a more basic question: Where do I even begin? Jamaican entrepreneur Aldain Reid believes the answer is not more fear, but greater capability.

Reid has launched INQUIZ Labs, the Academy of Applied Intelligence, a Kingston-founded online academy designed to take complete beginners from uncertainty about artificial intelligence to confidently using it to solve real-world problems. Its flagship AI Mastery Certificate is a 12-module, self-paced programme delivered over approximately eight weeks, with no coding required. The programme is designed to move learners from AI anxiety to AI action by giving them the practical skills and confidence to work with the technology.

The launch comes at a pivotal moment for the global workforce. Microsoft and LinkedIn’s Work Trend Index, based on research involving thousands of business leaders across 31 countries, found that 71 per cent of leaders would prefer to hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced candidate without them. The World Economic Forum’s employer research has also identified AI and big data among the fastest-growing skills through 2030.

For Reid, those findings reinforce a reality that businesses and workers can no longer afford to ignore. “The honest version of the story is not that AI is coming for anyone’s job,” said Reid, founder of INQUIZ Labs. That is a very different problem, because it has a solution you can start tonight.

Capability is, and capability is learnable by ordinary people, in weeks.” INQUIZ Labs is built on the belief that AI education should not be reserved for programmers, data scientists or technology professionals. The academy focuses instead on practical application, enabling people with little or no technical background to understand what AI can do and, more importantly, build something useful with it. Learners progress through 12 modules at their own pace, so they can fit the programme around their working lives, including jobs, shift work, and family responsibilities.

They are supported by an expert help desk, with responses within one business day, and complete the programme by designing, building a…